Hairdressers to help form a public health workforce

Fifteen million workers including hairdressers, firemen and postal workers could form part of “wider public health workforce”, following a report by the Royal Society for Public Health (RSPH). The report outlines plans for a range of different occupations including hairdressers to support efforts to improve the public’s health.  With only 40,000 people estimated to be part of the core public health workforce, and in light of the crisis in lifestyle health issues, the report calls for anyone who has “the opportunity or ability to positively impact health and wellbeing through their work” to join the wider public health workforce. In response Hilary Hall, chief executive of the NHF, said: “Hairdressers have a unique relationship with their clients and are pillars in the community, so potentially our industry could help to raise awareness of public health issues. Hairdressers already provide much-needed contact for older people, who may not see another person all week, and can be informal counsellors or therapists providing a listening ear to people who need to get things off their chest. “Although it’s positive that the report says one in four people would be prepared to take public health advice from a hairdresser, that still leaves 75% unsure. The public may not see hairdressers as experts in public health and are likely to be sceptical. Therefore formal training and more public information about the programme would be needed. This raises questions about who will be paying for it and how do busy business owners have time to spare to focus on such initiatives, which are worthwhile from a public service point of view, but take their focus away from running a successful business.” Commenting on the repots, Keith Mellen, managing director at Anne Veck Salons said: “My first thoughts are that this is completely nuts. However, of the targeted groups, hairdressers already engage in "healthy conversations" including life style (during consultations) and also often play an important role as informal counsellors and trusted listeners in whom clients feel confidence in sharing problems on a confidential basis. This happens because it is informal and takes place in a relaxed environment with no expectations from the client for any particular health or other formal outcomes. So hairdressers are skilled professionals who already carry out some of these roles on an informal basis and there could possibly be an opportunity to include some training on "behaviour change programmes" at NVQ Level 3.  If this enhances the public's perception of hairdressers and helps people then that would be a good thing. However, carrying out medical and mental health procedures, for example finger prick testing for diabetes and screening clients for anxiety is surely best left to the professionals in those fields.”